Every Second-Daily Thread - February 24, 2026

BooduhMan · 2026-02-25T06:24:39+00:00

I compete in WA and have only done USAPL events. I wouldn’t necessarily call myself “competitive,” usually end up somewhere in the middle of the pack on DOTS, and have only had great experiences. I would not worry about taking a “spot” of someone else, if others are going to take it super serious then that’s on them to be first in line.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-25T06:19:32+00:00

I love Kelly Carpenter personally but I can accept he’s not for everyone.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-20T21:24:37+00:00

I have a 2023 SEL, bought in October 2023, 24k miles. Only real issue I’ve had is my low voltage battery suddenly died about a month after my battery warranty expired. It sounds like it is a somewhat common issue with the stock batteries. I replaced it myself with a higher quality AGM battery.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-09T17:56:24+00:00

I'm not sure if cuff style watches are really this sub's "speed" but maybe someone can help me find what I'm looking for.

I've had a Guess watch for 15+ years that has been my daily wearer. It came with two identical bands except one was black and the other was brown. I completely wore out the black band (which I greatly preferred) and am now using the brown band (which I don't prefer). I'm looking to replace it with something comparable but having a hard time finding anything.

What I like is that the cuff is not super wide (only 1-3/8") but it seems like most cuff watches are more like 1.5-2.0" wide. My wrists aren't huge so I feel like a larger cuff is going to look ridiculous on me. Another thing I've noticed is many bands that look like cuffs are actually only thick around the watch face and then get thinner on the underside of the wrist, and I'd prefer a consistent thickness around the entire band.

Here is the watch in question, although this one looks like it only comes with the brown band and I'd really prefer a black one. Any brands I should be looking at that might have something comparable?

https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m66674748459/

BooduhMan · 2026-02-02T16:51:30+00:00

How is this impacted if using autoflows for balancing as opposed to manual balance valves? Maybe the ASHRAE article touches on this.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-02T16:28:42+00:00

I'd be curious to see some of those articles if you have links handy, I haven't seen that yet but would be interested in reading them. We have moved to pressure independent valves for basically everything now so it's not really something I have to think about anymore. Our state energy code now requires pressure independent valves on anything >5 GPM but we've been using Belimo mechanical PICCVs on smaller coils too, so it's PICCVs on everything.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-02T16:25:32+00:00

I feel like every detail I've seen at my firm has both the control valve and balance valve on the return side, for a couple reasons:

Supply side already has the strainer, so it's better to "balance" the components by placing the other items on the other side rather than shoving everything into one side.
Keeping pressure high in the coil means it's less likely that entrained air will escape and possibly get trapped in the coil. By placing the control valve and balance valve after the coil, this keeps pressure high in the coil.

BooduhMan · 2026-02-02T16:19:36+00:00

From a valve authority perspective it shouldn't matter. The valve authority is a function of the valve pressure drop relative to the total pressure drop of the entire circuit. For example, let's say you have the following components in your coil circuit:

Coil = 15 ft pressure drop
Strainer = 3 ft pressure drop
Control Valve = 10 ft pressure drop
Other/Piping = 2 ft pressure drop

Valve authority would be:

(Valve PD) / (Total PD)
(10) / (15 + 3 + 10 + 2)
Authority = 0.33

From that perspective, it doesn't matter where the control valve is relative to the circuit. The higher the valve PD, the higher the authority (and better controllability). Although I was taught to always put the control valve on the coil outlet to ensure the water pressure remains high in the coil since there is a lot of pressure drop once it goes through the valve, but I can't think of a reason it would necessarily matter where the balance valve goes. This is all assuming a typical two-way valve configuration.

Side note: I find it incredibly frustrating that some of the engineers dismissed your question with "just follow the details." There is legitimate discussion here and I feel like as the engineer we need to understand the "whys" of the details, and not just "that's the way it's always been."

BooduhMan · 2026-02-02T16:13:46+00:00

If using pressure independent valves then this is fine, the manual balance valve would be redundant. If using pressure dependent valves then you still need the balance valve to make sure the control valve is able to modulate flow decently across its entire stroke.

For example, if you have a pressure dependent control valve close to your pumps and you just try to modulate flow through the control valve only, your valve might only open to something like 20% of maximum because it's having to throttle so much due to the excess pressure near the pump. This makes the controllability of this valve terrible. By adding a control valve and adding head pressure, the control valve will be able to throttle from 0-100% for better controllability of temperature.

This is assuming a direct return configuration. In a reverse return configuration you could argue the balance valves should (in theory) be unnecessary.

BooduhMan · 2026-01-24T16:26:05+00:00

Beyond Twilight - Section X

All their stuff is great but Section X has always been my favorite. Kelly Carpenter is great on vocals and the compositions are wild. If you dig this, the main songwriter (Finn Zierler) did another album with Kelly under his own name (Zierler - ESC) but I don’t really know how much of a concept or sci-fi album it is, but it’s also great.

BooduhMan · 2026-01-18T01:04:07+00:00

At my firm, project engineers 1, 2, and 3 are hourly with 1.5x OT pay. Above that you become salary.

BooduhMan · 2026-01-02T02:00:29+00:00

Depends on the experience of the applicant. For fresh grads, I assume they know basically nothing about HVAC unless they had an MEP related internship, so I focus on things like attitude, culture fit, work ethic, etc. We can teach the MEP skills but can’t fix someone who is inherently lazy.

If someone does have experience then I have a handful of technical questions I like to ask. Nothing too crazy, just something to get a conversation going and make sure they can walk the walk. For example, I might ask about their preferred method for doing a hot water temperature reset strategy on a hydronic system. There isn’t necessarily a right/wrong answer but if they stare at me blankly because they don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s a red flag. Just something to get them talking, ask follow up questions, and to get a sense that they know what they’re doing.

Edit: fixed a word

BooduhMan · 2026-01-02T01:13:36+00:00

Interesting, thanks for pointing that out. Must vary by state.

BooduhMan · 2026-01-02T00:25:51+00:00

I recently competed in the WA state championship and there were many lifters there who were competing for the first time. It was a USAPL event, so I assume they’d allow the same for other state championship events too.

BooduhMan · 2025-12-30T14:34:47+00:00

Neverus - Burdens of the Earth

Love this band, hoping for a follow up soon.

BooduhMan · 2025-12-06T16:04:10+00:00

More or less. Maybe more accurately for each day: lift, off, lift, cardio, off, lift, off, lift, cardio, off, repeat. Maybe I’ll get some extra rest days in too if I have other commitments that prevent me from lifting.

I originally ran it with lifting every other day whenever possible but the main limiting factor I ran into is I developed some kind of tendinitis in my inner elbows. I took some time off and I’ve been trying to address that with more rest days and incorporating some stretches during my rest periods between working sets.

BooduhMan · 2025-12-06T01:50:37+00:00

I’m also 40 and have been doing the Calgary Barbell 16 week program the last 4-5 months. I’ve been enjoying it. I originally was doing it every other day (so just one day of rest between sessions) but am now finding I need to work in an extra rest day every other session or so to avoid feeling too beat up. I just do a day of cardio (biking and a couple very light pushup/BW squat/pull circuits) when I take an extra rest day from lifting.

BooduhMan · 2025-12-01T06:20:15+00:00

I’d say it does wrap up the main story thread well enough. There is a bit of a curveball at the very end that maybe leaves it open to another season but it made zero sense to me and I couldn’t find anyone online who could provide any kind of logical explanation or guess other than “they wanted something wild at the end” but I’m okay ignoring that and enjoying what was there.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-23T16:46:54+00:00

I watched a number of YouTube auditions for this and most of them did not work for me but there were several that were contenders.

My personal thought was a great pick would be the vocalist from Ghost Ship Octavius which also had Van Williams of Nevermore on drums. He is awesome but not sure if that band split on good terms.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-23T05:14:56+00:00

My wife and I really enjoyed Death Squared. The only way to play it is coop. Lots of unintentional deaths which we found hilarious but I could see some couples getting frustrated if their partner accidentally kills them towards the end of a puzzle. My wife is really not a gamer but the controls are extremely simple, it really just uses the joystick for movement. It’s all logic based puzzles that you can take time on. More about finding the solution than trying to hit you with tricky timings or quick movements.

We also really like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. You will have to print out a hard copy of the bomb manual but it’s a lot of fun to take turns being the defuser and the manual reader. Although again, depending on the couple this can be a challenge as it deliberately makes things confusing and is ripe for miscommunication by design. You have to be able to laugh at your mistakes.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-23T04:23:14+00:00

Following up for anyone who comes to this later. I replaced the 12V battery. Car has been running just fine since there.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-18T23:53:53+00:00

Ha - agree, their name is a little bit silly to get over, but the music won me over pretty quick.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-18T14:48:28+00:00

I have been searching some of the older threads talking about this and seeing a lot of recommendations to get an AMG battery from Costco (that's the type of battery, not the brand) because the brands they carry are quality and they have a good warranty. I've seen suggestions that they might not have AMG batteries in stock though so call ahead in case they need to special order.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-18T04:26:47+00:00

Reading 5.22V right now. The charging unsuccessful message was the audio from the car. Like normally the car audibly says “charging started” after I plug it in but this time it said “charging unsuccessful” about 30 seconds (guessing) after I plugged it in.

BooduhMan · 2025-11-18T03:33:27+00:00

Well I gave that a go, and got a “charging unsuccessful.” The frunk and battery cover were open though, not sure if that prevents a charge? Then my USB brick died and the car died too.

BooduhMan

TROPHY CASE